An O.A.P.'s view of everything.

Monthly Archives: August 2012

Bright and sunny this morning and, although it doesn’t show much in the picture, there was a touch of frost!
It was clear toward Holcombe Hill from Old Hall with a Grebe or two diving at the Radcliffe end. A blue sky yes, but a wintry nip already in the air.

Heavy rain this morning and so a few of the pics are, naturally, a bit iffy.
While giving-way to soaked joggers, (oh yes) along the tow-path, there was thunder…but it wasn’t ‘close’; I was just getting the heavy rain. Brilliant!
At Elton the swans are a little sheltered by overhanging trees. But the weeds all but fill the waterway.
A hundred or more years ago this would have been the main Bolton to Bury trade route! Rain or shine.
The reservoir was just a grey area this morning! And it’s still raining!

Sun lit the sign for a change this morning but the air is cool rather than humid.
Six (massive!) cygnets are all okay, but again I’ll go to the Elton end to see the other pair of swans.
At the end of the ‘slab wall’, that runs down from the scaffolded bridge, is a large, well-made ‘newell-post’ and the copings on top of the black bridge bricks are held together with clamps set in lead…
Today, the fieldfull of geese is a fieldfull of gulls!

Rain in the air around the Radcliffe end of the canal this morning but ducks and swans all okay – the ducks flew in. Walkers feed the birds regularly at this end of the canal so I’m off to the Bury end to see the other pair of swans.
Normally the ‘Elton End’ swans feed just before the old scaffolded bridge by their nests, but lately the weeds all but block the water and the swans have moved toward Bury.
This part of the canal is in its original state – edging-stones and a dirt tow-path – with mooring-ring stones here and there. These days H. Balsam is everywhere and spreading fast. But the swans seem ok.
From the swans at the Hinds Lane end to Elton Reservoir and the view toward Holcombe Hill – clear today, with Holcombe fields visible from Radcliffe.
Swans on the reservoir too.
Rainy lanes and a fieldfull of Canada Geese on the way home.

A busy morning along the tow-paths and lanes with many folk wheeling or walking between Radcliffe and Bury. Some ‘folk’ along the canal though, are more easily seen than others!
Up at Elton Reservoir, looking toward Holcombe Hill, a few wispy clouds surround the hills and wind turbines.
While, silent and calm, 220 million gallons of water merely rest. Waiting to work perhaps?

It’s still smoky around the Radcliffe end of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal paths after a fire along Bury Road on Thursday night.
Yesterday I was looking at pictures of the Lancaster Canal at ‘Barton Grange’. Pristine clear waters and stones, gaily painted Narrow-Boats and small cruisers…and nearby the superbly arranged retail departments, with indoor plant displays and trendy ornaments…
…in contrast today I look across at what the old maps of the area call ‘Capstick’s Marsh’. It’s just an acre or two of watery land, across the Radcliffe Canal, that’s full of bullrushes and reeds…it’s entirely wild yet not far from civilization.
A bit further along the canal, to the right, are a few stables and grazing fields for horses. They’ve probably kept horses around here for donkeys years – especially when the canal was busy – well over a century at the very least.
And the canal itself isn’t a weed-free waterway for ‘Classic’ Narrow-Boats – just the opposite in fact – no one ‘gardens’ so water-weeds are rampant and there are no boats at all.
There are also no car-parks and the resulting retail outlets en-route, which, naturally speaking, is a real USP!
And I did notice, on some photo’s of ‘Barton Grange’, a fairly solid incursion of Himalayan Balsam.
So the (unsuspecting?) gardeners there will be on overtime very soon…

Sunny this morning and this young (very!) Staffy was giving his people a good work-out. For the record, not far from here, last night, there was a major fire along Bury Road at the Radcliffe end where the old factories are. It was still smoky this morning.
Clear and sunny at Elton Reservoir, so the colours come out well.

A touch of rain along the tow-paths today and a chance, by the farm, to get all the swans and cygnets in one photo.
Misty over Holcombe Hill and the fisher-folk leave a memento perhaps?
Not the best photo but there were umpteen Canada Geese all over that sprouting meadow – an army of vegetarian raptors!

A jungle yes, but the intrepid explorer can get direction from the sun, but in Radcliffe ‘the sun’ is often an unknown quantity! But there are other directional aid’s.
ind you, the 524 bus-stop is only a hundred yards or so away.
Up at Elton (Bury end) the canal is well choked with weeds, so the pair of swans there might be glad of a slice of Kingsmill or two…
…and around here Herons think they’re Highland cattle!
Clearer across to Holcombe Hill today and a few fisher-folk were up and after a Pike or two…